


Shed Your Skin

by yaysunshine



Category: Scion (Tabletop RPG)
Genre: 2010s, Amatsukami, Backstory, Gen, TBD IC Canon, Visitation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-05
Updated: 2016-04-05
Packaged: 2018-05-31 12:53:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,337
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6470671
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yaysunshine/pseuds/yaysunshine
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In 2013, Liz Kawaguchi receives a visitor during a storm.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Shed Your Skin

Liz has always liked the rain, and likes it more now—it makes the world seem smaller and quieter, like all that exists is her tiny cabin apartment on the park grounds. Which is particularly nice, right now. Even though it’s enough space to live in and not much more, it almost feels too big now that Amy doesn’t come around anymore.

It’s hard to avoid her eyes at meetings, and Liz doesn’t really want to—but Amy was right, that night a couple weeks ago, when she said _this is for the best_. Amy had wanted to feel like she really _knew_ Liz, wanted to know why Liz never talked about her past except for in the broadest possible strokes. But even if Liz _could_ tell her the truth, she’s sure Amy would never believe her.

Well, not like she isn’t used to it. She should have known better, honestly, than to think that this time things would work out. She’s always just a little too aware of the fact that anyone who tries to love her will be loving a lie, a person who might not really even exist.

…it was nice, though. While it lasted.

She shrugs, and fiddles with the slightly bent antennae on the TV again, trying to get some decent reception through the storm. Not that most of the good channels come through out here—mostly she relies on the internet, but _that’s_ not doing so hot tonight, either. The electricity’s been on and off—maybe a downed line somewhere. The hiss of static joins the steady patter of the rain.

There’s a sudden noise outside, and Liz stops what she’s doing and sits straight up, glancing out at the windows, heart speeding up in her chest. But she can’t see anything through the rain except a flutter of something white against the darkness. Probably just some birds taking shelter from the storm.

Still, though, she’s got a streak of suspicion a mile wide, and there’s no harm in double-checking. Gives her something to do other than sitting around on her tiny couch. She stands, and walks over to the window to open it just a crack.

She looks out and blinks. Perched on the thin railing of her barely-a-porch, end to end, sit a line of pure white doves, their bright feathers stark against the dark, rainy night. And on her steps stands a man with weathered skin and dark hair, wearing hiking gear but not wet at all.

He looks up at her before she can reach her shotgun, and smiles. “Good evening, child of divine blood,” he says, with just a trace of an accent like her grandfather’s, and she freezes. Her blood feels like it’s gone ice-cold in her veins. How does he know—but, no, she’s pretty sure she knows _exactly_ how he knows. “Would you kindly allow a stranger shelter from the storm?”

God fucking damn it. What choice does she really have?

* * *

He asks if he might have a cup of tea. She hazards that all she’s got is boring old Lipton black, but he seems perfectly happy with that. Happy enough that it’s irritating. Liz can’t help but feel like she’s being tested.

Liz can play this game, though. She busies herself offering hot water refills, towels (despite his apparent imperviousness to rain), leftovers. Chatters about the weather so far this season, recent events at the park, the upcoming summer tourist season. Asks how he’s enjoying his stay so far.

He repays in kind—talks about how his travels have been, about how he hasn’t been this far west in some time, how different it is from his home country. How welcoming people have been, how many interesting foods he’s tried. Who can be the most maddeningly mundane, even when everyone here knows that no one and nothing here is anything of the sort?

Liz knows it’ll be her, if only because she has the home team advantage of not wanting to find out what he’s here for. He, on the other hand, _wants_ something. At long last he sets his mug down on the table with a decisive _clunk_ and folds his hands in his lap.

“Elizabeth Kawaguchi, named for her great-grandmother, granddaughter of one named a hero, daughter of warring ideals. You have a guess why I am here.”

She sighs, and abandons the façade of ignorance. “I was sort of hoping I was wrong. Plus, it’s _Liz_. And I still have no idea who _you_ are.”

“My apologies. Liz it is. But I _did_ introduce myself…?”

Liz thinks back. “Oh,” she says. “You did say your name was—Hachiman?” She manages to only stumble slightly over the pronunciation. “I assumed that was just some bullsh—uh, a name you made up.”

He stands. “Then allow me to introduce myself again, properly. I am _Hachiman Daibosatsu_ , Lord of Eight Banners, protector of Japan. I greet you, Liz Kawaguchi, distant daughter of my homeland.”

In that moment, the ages unfold before her, stretching out into the past. Forests giving way to rice fields giving way to towns and then cities, a land and a people growing and changing and fighting each other and the outside world. And some of them crossing oceans to _see_ that outside world, looking for new opportunities, better lives—finding hardship, but forging onwards nonetheless. A line of people that traces all the way to the present—to her. For the first time in her life she feels _connected_ to something, and it’s terrifying and comforting all at once. Like coming home to a place she’s never known.

She catches herself in the middle of stumbling back, bracing herself with one hand against the couch. Her cheeks feel wet, as if she’s been crying. “ _Shit_. What _was_ —oh. Oh no. Oh no oh no oh no.”

“Daughter not of my blood but of my people, I know your desire to forge your own destiny.” His appearance hasn’t changed, but somehow now he seems more vivid, more _real_ , than everything around him. “This gift has always been within you, but now you have the power to choose what to do with it.”

Liz pushes herself back up to a standing position. She feels like her hands should be shaking, but they aren’t. It feels strangely natural that all of this is happening. In some ways it’s a relief to have capital-D destiny finally catch up with her. “I know how this works, though. Is that really true?”

Hachiman places a hand on her shoulder. “There will always be parts of your circumstances you cannot change. But you will always be able to choose what you do about them.” He pauses, and then nods. “Regarding what you _actually_ meant—there _will_ come a time when I will call upon you, and when you must answer. Power comes with responsibilities.”

She’s almost certainly making a less than pleased expression, which is probably why he goes on to add: “I promise you, child of two nations, that you will have the opportunity to find what you seek. But change is rarely found in unchallenging conditions. Growth requires both the rain and the sun. You will face hard choices, but the choices will be _yours_.”

Liz opens her mouth to say something, but starts at a sudden noise behind her, and then the sound of voices—the television news flickering back to life. She turns to look outside; it’s no longer raining.

He’s already putting his coat back on and picking up his bag. “It has been good to meet you at last,” he says, shouldering the backpack and heading for the door. “For now, grow as you will. One day I will return, and on that day, be prepared for things to change.”

She watches him walk away, as if daring him to vanish into thin air. But he just continues walking down the paved path heading toward the woods until his form vanishes into the darkness.

* * *

Three years later, he returns.

**Author's Note:**

> I thought about calling this "Please Try This Religion," but probably not everyone thinks the History of Japan video is as funny as I do.


End file.
